Just a (not so) little project to really dig into World of Tanks and help to clarify exactly what is going on.

Warning: Some sections are fairly math heavy.

Ammo types: All of the shell types in World of Tanks.

Spoiler

AP: Will only deal damage on full penetration. Has 5 degrees of normalization. Loses very little penetration value over range.

APCR/APDS: Will only deal damage on full penetration. Has higher penetration values than AP. Has 2 degrees of normalization. Much higher velocity and penetration than AP. Loses more penetration over range than AP. Lower caliber guns lose penetration much more quickly than higher caliber guns. Guns that use APCR as the default ammunition do not lose as much penetration at range and still have 2 degrees of normalization.

HE: Highest damage values but lowest penetration. Typically the damage is 25% more than that of the AP round. Does not lose penetration over range. Can deal splash damage. Can deal damage without penetrating. Any spaced armor (Including tracks and view ports) will cause the shell to detonate early and deal less damage to enemy armor.

Premium HE: Works exactly the same as standard HE but with increased splash radius.

HEAT: Will only deal damage on full penetration. Has higher penetration values than AP. Does not normalize. Does not lose penetration over range. Easily negated by sloped and spaced armor (including tracks and view ports). Not very effective against spaced armor.

HESH and HEP: Both work the same way. Works much like a high-penetration HE round. Deals additional damage to modules and crew.

Ammo Mechanics: How different shells work.

Spoiler

Impact angle and Normalization: Impact angle is the angle at which the shell impacts. The optimal impact angle is perpendicular to the enemy's armor. Actual impact angle is calculated as a deviation of the optimal. Normalization improves the actual impact angle by a set amount closer to the optimal impact angle if impact angle less than the ammo types ricochet angle. This only affects AP and APCR.

Example: If an AP shell impacts at a 60 degree angle, because of the normalization of 5 degrees, the game will calculate it as an impact at 55 degrees. However, if it impacts at an angle greater than 70 degrees, it will ricochet without normalization occurring.

AP = 5 degrees.

APCR = 2 degrees.

Ricochet: Occurs when a shell impacts enemy armor at very steep angles. 70 degrees for AP and APCR. 85 degrees for HEAT. You can ricochet off of spaced armor. Even if you penetrate the spaced armor, you can still ricochet off of the armor underneath because the angle of impact on the armor underneath is taken into account with reduced penetration values (Original penetration - spaced armor effective thickness = penetration through second layer of armor). HE, HESH, and HEP do not ricochet but the enemy's armor can absorb the blast causing zero damage. If this occurs, the commander will report it as a bounce or ricochet.

NOTE: HE non-penetration formula is under "Armor Damage" section.

Double Overmatch (Only affects AP and APCR): When a guns caliber is twice that of the nominal thickness of the armor it is impacting (90mm gun hitting 45mm armor), the shells normalization improves by the following formula; basic normalization * 1.4 * shell caliber / nominal armor thickness. Keep in mind that shells that impact armor at an angle greater than 70 degrees will still bounce.

Triple Overmatch (Only affects AP and APCR): When a guns caliber is more than three times that of the nominal thickness of the armor it is impacting (100mm gun hitting 30mm armor), no ricochet will occur even if impacting at greater than 70 degrees and the shell will penetrate. When this occurs, the above Double Overmatch does NOT. If impacting external modules, Triple Overmatch can occur multiple times (Have tested and can confirm this).

Randomization: All penetration and damage values can vary +/- 25%. For the exact range of damage and penetration values for a specific shell, go to the vehicle details screen or the supplies screen. Keep in mind that the average is much more likely than either of the extremes.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Spaced armor includes: Side skirts, tracks, gun, gun mantlet, viewports, armor plates, and some track links hanging off of tanks. Some track pieces are just visual (front of the Tiger) and others are included in the base armor and not as spaced (front of the IS-3).

Armor damage: How to calculate damage done to enemy vehicles.

Spoiler

Armor health is the tanks listed health in-game.

AP, APCR, and HEAT: Will always deal full damage on penetration and zero damage on a non-penetration.

NOTE: Spall coefficient can be 1.2, 1.25, 1.3, or 1.5 based on which Spall Liner is equipped. If no Spall Liner, then spall coefficient is 1.

NOTE: If actual damage is equal to or less than zero, no damage is dealt.

Ramming Damage: How the game calculates damage when ramming.

Spoiler

When ramming an opponents tank, the game generates an explosion at the point of impact. The strength of the explosion is determined by the speed and weights of the colliding vehicles.

The formula for this is a follows: (0.5 * combined weight * relative speed^2) = Total damage

However, the total damage of the explosion is split between the two tanks. The lighter tank will always take more damage than the heavier tank.

The formula for this is as follows: Total damage * (1 - individual weight / combined weight) = damage taken for that tank. This formula is run for both vehicles.

Example: If a 75 ton tank and a 25 ton tank collide, the 25 ton tank will take 75% of the resulting damage and the 75 ton tank will take 25% of the resulting damage.

NOTE: Keep in mind that the game calculates actual damage dealt through the resulting explosion from the collision the same way as it would calculate a HE non penetration. This means that it is best to ram an enemy where their armor is weaker and not hit spaced armor.

Module and crew damage: Chances to damage and effects of damaged modules and crew.

Spoiler

Just like the tank, modules and crew have a set health pool as well. Shells will generally deal less damage to modules and crew than they do to the tank.

Saving Throw: When a module or crew member is hit, the game calculates a saving throw. When hit, each module has X% chance of being hit. The values are as follows:

Suspension: 100%

Engine: 45%

Fuel Tanks: 45%

Observation Device: 45%

Radio: 45%

Turret Ring: 45%

Gun: 30%

Ammunition Rack: 27%

Crew (when hit by AP/APCR/HEAT): 33%

Crew (when hit by internal explosion): 10%

Module and Crew colors: By default, all modules and crew are at 100% health and have no color around them. At <50% health, modules will turn yellow. At 0% modules and crew are destroyed/killed and will not work until repaired/healed. Crew members have to yellow state.

When Yellow: Most modules will work in a reduced state as follows.

Tracks: No effect on performance but more easily destroyed.

Rangefinder: Reduced View Range.

Fuel Tank: Repeat hits are more likely to start a fire.

Turret: 50% reduction in turret traverse.

Gun: 50% increase in dispersion and decrease in accuracy.

Engine: 50% reduction in horsepower.

Ammo Rack: 50% reload speed.

When Red: Modules are destroyed and crew are killed and effects are as follows.

Complete Crew Death: In the event that the entire crew is killed, the vehicle is considered destroyed and med kits can no longer be applied.

Fire: There are two ways to start a fire. The first is by destroying the Fuel Tanks. The second is by hitting the engine. Every time the engine is hit (regardless if it is damaged enough to turn it yellow or red), there is a chance that a fire will start. This change usually ranges from 12%-20% depending on the engine. The duration and amount of damage taken from fire varies from tank to tank but fire damages the tank as well as modules and crew. Without a fire extinguisher, the crew will eventually put out the fire but the tank will usually suffer catastrophic tank and module damage in this event.

Effective Armor Thickness: How to calculate your effective armor.

Spoiler

The given values of a tanks armor is the nominal thickness and the effective thickness is the thickness at the current angle. Effective armor thickness is calculated with the following formula: Nominal armor / ( cos (impact angle) ) = Effective armor thickness

Example: The effective armor of a 100 mm plate at 30 degrees can be found by plugging the information into the above formula. 100mm / ( cos30° ) = 115.47mm effective armor.

NOTE: The nominal armor thickness given in game may not be uniform across that entire portion of the tank. Common weakpoints can include lower frontal plate and machine gun ports.

The following table provides effective armor in percentages based on angle from perpendicular.

0° = 100%

10° = 101.54%

20° = 106.42%

30° = 115.47%

40° = 130.54%

50° = 155.57%

60° = 200%

70° = 292.38%

>70° = Ricochet for AP and APCR

Tank Stats: How to calculate accuracy, aim time, view range, etc. including lists of common accuracies.

Spoiler

Your tanks performance is heavily dependent on your crews qualification. Each crew member is responsible for one or more tasks within the tank (commander, radio operator, driver, gunner, and loader) and some tanks may have multiple of some crew members (T1 Heavy and M6 have two gunners and Tortoise has two loaders for example).

The Commander gives 10% of his skill level as a bonus to ALL crew members.

Example: A 90% trained crew gunner will operate at 99% effectiveness because of a 9% bonus from a 90% trained Commander. Just as a 100% trained crew loader will operate at 110% effectiveness from a 100% trained Commander.

A tanks actual performance for each stat can be calculated with one of the following formulas:

NOTE: How crew skill affects the tanks performance is interesting. In order to achieve the given view range of a tank, the crew must be trained 100% but in order to achieve the given reload, aim time, and movement performance, the crew must be trained ~91% because of the commander 10% bonus. This means that a fully trained crew in a tank can actually achieve performance ABOVE the given values without any Crew Skills, Equipment, or Consumables (Although these will increase it further).

Vehicle Weight: The Matchmaker tries to form two equal teams based on vehicle weight within a specific tier spread.

The vehicle weights by tier are as follows:

Individual Vehicle Weight: Some vehicles have unique weights in the matchmaker for balance purposes.

Spoiler

Vehicle Tier: Is NOT taken into account by the matchmaker when making teams. It is all based on vehicle weight. All tanks will be within the same tier spread however.

Platoons: When in a platoon, the entire platoon is placed into battles according to the member with the highest battle tier. The matchmaker will attempt to balance out the weight of the two teams by either putting more lower weight tanks on the enemy team or by putting more higher weight tanks on the friendly team. This can produce strange and unwanted results however. The matchmaker does try to balance the number of platooned tanks but not the platoons weight.

Example: One team could have two 3-man platoons of tier 8's while the other team has three 2-man platoons of tier 6's. The matchmaker sees that as balanced so long as the teams overall weight is similar.

Game Modes: Game types and how to win each.

Spoiler

There are 4 game modes on WoT Console at the present time. All matches are 15 v 15 normally but they can be 10 v 10, 7 v 7, or 5 v 5 if the current server population is low.

Standard Battle: Each team has a base to defend. The objective is to either destroy all enemy vehicles or capture the enemy base.

Assault: In this game mode there is only 1 base controlled by the defending team. If the attackers destroy all enemy vehicles or capture the base with at least one attacking tank still standing, then the attackers win. If the base is left uncaptured and there are defending tanks still standing, then the defending team wins.

Encounter: There is 1 neutral base. The objective is to either destroy all enemy vehicles or capture the neutral base.

Team Destruction: There is no base to be captured. The objective is to destroy as much of the enemy team as possible before time runs out. Victory goes to the team that has the most tank remaining. In the event of a tie, victory is given to the team whose total hp pool of killed enemy vehicles is higher.

Experience and Silver Earnings: How to gain the most from your game time.

Spoiler

During battle:

Action

Experience earned

Silver earned

Joining a battle

None.

Fixed amount that scales with tier.

Spotting enemy tank for the first time

Small flat bonus per tank. Double for SPG.

Small flat bonus per tank. Double for SPG.

Damaging enemies you are spotting yourself

Per point of damage modified by enemy tank type and tier compared to your own. Attacking higher tiers earns more.

Per point of damage.

Damaging enemies that are not spotted.

All damage counts as above.

All damage counts as above.

Damaging enemies that are spotted by your team, but not you.

50% of above.

50% of above.

Damage done to targets you are spotting by allies who are not spotting them themselves.

50% of what allied vehicle would earn if they were spotting the target themselves.

50% of what allied vehicle would earn if they were spotting the target themselves.

Destroying modules and killing crew. (Damaging modules gains nothing)

Small bonus depending on enemy tier compared to yours. Lights gain a bonus for critical damage on heavy tanks.

None.

Killing entire crew.

Same reward as inflicting remaining health pool as damage.

Same reward as inflicting remaining health pool as damage.

Killing shot.

Small reward based on enemy tier compared to yours.

None.

Close combat bonus (damaging enemies within 200 meters of your tank).

Small bonus.

None.

Base capture points.

Per capture point bonus up to 100 points if base is successfully captured.

None.

Base defense points.

Per defense point. More than 100 points possible.

None.

Successful base capture.

Flat bonus

Flat amount to everyone in capture zone at the time of capture.

After battle:

Action

Experience earned

Silver earned

Survival.

Small flat bonus.

None.

Team performance factor.

Coefficient based on total damage dealt to enemy team by friendly team.

0 exp earned unless player reconnects to match before it ends. Can still earn exp if vehicle is destroyed by enemy team.

0 silver earned unless player reconnects to match before it ends. Can still earn silver if vehicle is destroyed by enemy team.

Exiting battle mid-game before vehicle is destroyed.

0 exp earned unless player reconnects to match before it ends. Can still earn exp if vehicle is destroyed by enemy team.

0 silver earned unless player reconnects to match before it ends. Can still earn silver if vehicle is destroyed by enemy team.

Team damage. (can still be caused by pushing friendly vehicle off cliff or into deep water)

When causing team damage, twice the amount of exp you would receive for causing the same damage to enemy is taken as a penalty.

When receiving team damage, none.

When causing team damage, penalty of 4x the amount required to fix damage caused.

When receiving team damage, half the repair cost required to fix the damage or a quarter of what the friendly causing the damage paid. Whichever is lower.

Free Experience: You will earn 5% of your total earned experience as free experience as a bonus to your standard experience earned. Free Experience can be used on any tank. You can also convert experience on Premium and Elite vehicles into Free Experience with Gold.

Crew Training: How much experience is needed for crews and how to get extra crew experience.

Spoiler

Before being able to train skills and perks on a crew, it must first master the tank it is on. For a 50% trained crew, it will take 48,314 experience before the tank is mastered. For a 75% trained crew, it will take 24,157 experience. After the tank is mastered, the crew experience goes towards training a selected skill or perk. The required crew experience needed for each skill or perk is as follows:

Skill/perk 1-4 require 100,800 crew exp each.

Skill/perk 5-8 require 201,600 crew exp each.

Skill/perk 9-12 require 403,200 crew exp each.

Skill/perk 13-16 require 806,400 crew exp each.

Skill/perk 17-20 require 1,612,800 crew exp each.

Skill/perk 21-24 require 3,225,600 crew exp each.

Skill/perk 25 requires 6,451,200 crew exp.

Total crew exp needed for a 25 skill/perk crew: 31,852,800

Accelerated Crew Training:

All premium and elite vehicles provide an extra 25% crew experience every time experience is earned.

OPs: Any OP that awards experience also awards the same amount of crew experience.

Overtraining: A common practice for many players is to overtrain a crew before moving it to a new tank by not selecting a new perk/skill upon completing the previous one. The causes the crew experience to build up on the crew so when you transfer it, that experience will be applied towards mastering the new tank.

Vision Mechanics: How the game calculates spotting and camouflage.

Spoiler

Draw Distance: The servers have a set limitation to any dynamic objects which includes friendly tanks, enemy tanks, and destructible objects on the terrain of 564m. The reason dynamic objects remain invisible to you is because the server will not send that information to you if it is outside of a 564m sphere centered on your tank. This affects both the Arcade View (3rd person) and Sniper View (1st person). SPG's have a separate view called the Strategic View (satellite view). The server will send all information about anything within that view, regardless of draw distance.
NOTE: The minimap is not affected by draw distance, only radio coverage.

View Range: Maximum distance that your commander can see out of your tank. Unlike what equipment will tell you in-game, there is no 500m maximum view range. It is unlimited. The only purpose of View Range is as a factor for Spotting Range.

Spotting Range: Maximum distance at which you will spot enemies if you have line of sight. There is a 50m auto-detect radius around your tank where you will detect enemies regardless of line of sight. The maximum distance you can detect enemies at is 445m. Past 445m, the game does not perform any spotting checks. The Spotting Range is not a fixed value and can vary with soft cover like bushes and enemy camo value. Spotting Range is calculated individually for each enemy tank. Keep in mind that friendly and enemy vehicles are entirely transparent when it comes to spotting mechanics so you can spot and be spotted by enemies through friendly and enemy vehicles.

If your Spotting Range equals or exceeds the distance to that vehicle and you have line of sight, the vehicle is detected.

Spotting Mechanics: To determine if you have line of sight on an enemy tank, two vision rays are sent out from two View Range Ports on your tank to the 6 Visibility Checkpoints on the enemy vehicle. If the vision rays meet even one of the Visibility Checkpoints, the enemy vehicle is spotted.

​Camouflage Factor: The higher the Camouflage Factor, the shorter the Spotting range.

Base Camo is the set camo a vehicle has. The Base Camo rating is defined differently at moving and at standing still. http://www.wotinfo.net/en/camo-calculator is a good place to find this value but be warned, the values are player-tested and unofficial.

Camo Skill is the percent training in the Camouflage skill.

Camo at Shot is a value defined by the turret/gun combination and varies from tank to tank, even when using the same gun. In general, firing will reduce your Base Camo down to about 25% of normal.

Camo Pattern is any tank camouflage you can purchase for gold or silver. Provides +5% to camouflage.

Camouflage Net is equipment that activates after being stationary and provides +25% to camouflage.

Environment Camo are things like rocks, bushes, and trees. Solid objects on the terrain (including hills) break the line of sight and are considered 100% camouflage. The camouflage bonuses provided by bushes and trees can be found HERE. Note that those values are for PC and may be different on console. Environment camo does stack.

Example: Say you are facing a target and between you and the target are three bushes as 5m, 15m, and 20m. While stationary, you will be receiving 3 * X environment camo from that target.

When firing your gun, ALL environmental camo within 15m of you is reduced to 30% of the original value and no longer stacks. This only affects you so the bushes will still provide their full camo amounts to allies.

Example: Same scenario as above. Because 2 bushes are within 15m of you while firing, they no longer stack and only one camo bonus is applied. However, the bush at 20m is unaffected by this and still provides full camo. This makes the camo provided become 1.3 * X .

View Range Ports: There are two View Range Ports on every tank. One Static and one Dynamic. The static port is placed at the highest elevation point on the tank and stays there. The dynamic port is placed where the gun meets the turret and moves with the turret.

Visibility Checkpoints: There are 6 of these.

One is located where the Static View Port is.

One is located where the Dynamic View Port is.

One is located at the front center of the hull.

One is located at the rear center of the hull.

One is located at the right side, middle of turret (hull if hull-locked vehicle)

One is located at the left side, middle of turret (hull if hull-locked vehicle)

Visibility Checks: In general, the two View Range Ports take turns doing visibility checks every 2 seconds. The rate of Visibility Checks is as follows:

50m = every 0.1 seconds

150m = every 0.5 seconds

270m = every 1 second

445m = every 2 seconds

Spotting Duration: A tank will remain spotted after the spotting vehicle has lost line of sight or has been destroyed for a minimum of 5 seconds but the duration can be as long as 10 seconds. The exact duration is random. (With the Designated Target crew skill, it is a minimum of 7 seconds and maximum of 12 seconds.)

Targeted mechanic: With the addition of Update 4.2, Detected! was removed and replaced with Targeted. It turns on instandly when you are spotted and actively have an enemy players camera (not the gun) facing you. If they look away from you but you are still spotted, Targeted will turn off instantly. Artillerys overhead Strategic View will not set off Targeted.

Minimap: The minimap is unaffected by view range and instead is determined by Radio Range (discussed in the next section).

Radio Range: How to stay in communication with allies.

Spoiler

Every vehicle has a set of radios that they can equip on their tanks. Vehicles can communicate with each other as long as they are closer/as close together as the sum of their effective radio ranges. Remember that radio range is affected by the Radioman's skill level (or crew member responsible for radio). If you are in communication, then you will relay information about friendly and enemy vehicles either of you are currently spotting to each other. HOWEVER, you will not relay information you are receiving from an ally that is within your radio range to other vehicles.

Example: If Vehicle 1 has an effective radio range of 300 meters and Vehicle 2 has an effective radio range of 500 meters, they will be able to communicate up to 800 meters away from each other.

Image Example:

Spoiler

Movement: Movement mechanics and how it works.

Spoiler

Acceleration: Mainly based on your vehicles power/weight ratio. This can be found by dividing your current engines horsepower by the weight of your vehicle. Many consumables can increase your horsepower.

Acceleration is also affected by your suspensions Terrain Resistances, terrain you are driving on, and elevation of terrain. NOTE: Enhanced Suspension equipment does not affect driving performance at all.

Terrain Resistance: Describes your suspensions performance (top speed, acceleration, and hull traverse) on various types of ground. The game has three types of terrain.

Hard: Roads, cobblestone, and pavement provide the best surfaces to drive with the lowest terrain resistance.

Average: Dirt, sand, grass, and shallow water have average terrain resistance.

Soft: Swamp and deep water have the highest terrain resistance.

Track width does not determine terrain resistances and for all tanks, if there is a suspension upgrade, it will provide an improvement to at least one of the terrain resistances.

Top Speed: In game, this is somewhat misleading because it is NOT the speed at which your tank should move at. Instead, it is the limit on your vehicles transmission system. Some tanks are able to reach it on flat ground, some can only reach it going downhill, and others are incapable of reaching it altogether. The top speed can be exceeded under the right conditions which may include faster tanks pushing you or driving downhill. Keep in mind that this stat is based on your power/weight ratio.

Hull Traverse Speed: This number determines how fast your tank can rotate in terms of degrees/second. This number can vary wildly based on engine, suspension, and terrain resistance. Keep in mind that the displayed number in game is based off of the STOCK engine of every tank and is often times displayed much lower than it actually is.

Example: Take the Hetzer. It has 28 deg/sec traverse and a 100hp engine while stock. With the upgraded treads and stock engine, it has 30 deg/sec traverse. That traverse speed skyrockets once it gets the top engine (220hp) because it has more than double the horsepower while the displayed 30 deg/sec stays the same.

NOTE: Some tanks can rotate on the spot (pivot) while others must be moving forwards or backwards to turn. Generally, pivoting is the faster turning when stopped.

Aiming: Different methods of aiming and how to aim.

Spoiler

This sounds like it should be pretty straight forward. Put cross hairs on target and pull the trigger. However there is a little bit more going on than that.

Automatic Aiming: By locking onto a target, your gun will attempt to stay trained on the target. The auto-aim will put the reticle to the lower section of the closest point of the enemy tank. Often times, this will land the shell on a more heavily armored or well angled part of the tank so is best used at close range when you need to focus more on driving and maneuvering your vehicle than having precision aiming. Keep in mind that the auto-aim will stay trained on the enemy for as long as it is detected, even from behind solid cover like rocks and buildings so you shouldn't always take the shot just because you are locked on.

Manual Aiming: This is how most fighting is done with players sighting in enemy tanks before taking the shot. Every shell has it's own velocity and trajectory that is best learned through experience. The various types are as follows:

Arcade View: This is the standard 3rd person view. Your gun will try to follow your view point but this can lead to problems where you will be trying to sight someone downrange but the view point is on top of a bit of the terrain causing your gun to point up trying to follow the view point. Best not to do too much fighting from this view but is fantastic for maneuvering your vehicle.

Sniper View: This is essentially the WoT version of "aiming down the sights" as you are pretty much looking through the barrel. Through this view point, you are seeing exactly where your shell will land and you won't have the same difficulty in aiming in enclosed spaces as you will with the Arcade View. Be careful not to get "tunnel vision" and lose your awareness of what is going on around you as you don't want and enemy tank to sneak up behind you.

Strategic View (SPG Only): If you are driving a self-propelled gun, or artillery as it is commonly called, then the Sniper View is not available to you. Instead you get what is called the Strategic View. Through this view, you have a top-down view of the battlefield. Unlike other aiming modes, the aiming circle adjusts to terrain elevation and ballistic trajectory usually causing the aiming circle to instead appear a more oval shape. This can help judge both elevation and trajectory. The dot in the middle of the aiming circle is the height adjusted center of your aim. Aiming with artillery (SPGs) can take some getting used to but the diagram in the spoiler below can help you get started.

Spoiler

Penetration Indicator: The Penetration Indicator uses a easy color coded guide to help with where to aim. Keep in mind that the Penetration Indicator is not perfect and should be used for reference of your ability to fight the enemy tank.

When RED: This indicates a guaranteed penetration at the targeted location. Keep in mind that this only takes into account the first object it will hit whether its tracks, spaced armor, view ports, etc. and does not mean that you will penetrate the armor underneath (where applicable).

When ORANGE: The targets armor thickness lies within the +/-25% range of your penetration rating.

When YELLOW: The targets armor thickness is greater than your penetration rating.

NOTE: Because of dispersion, your shell may not land exactly in the targeted location.

Leading the Target: When your target is moving, you will need to aim a little in front of them to land a hit because of shell travel time. The exact amount you will need to lead your target depends on multiple things like how fast the target is moving, your shells velocity, and what angle is the target moving in relation to your current position. Naturally, shells with lower velocity will have to lead more while shells with higher velocity will need to lead less. This is best learned through practice. For a visual on the subject, see spoiler below.

Spoiler

Ballistic Trajectory: The reticle takes Ballistic Trajectory into account and will automatically aim a little higher for the shell to land at the targeted location.

Line of Sight: Even though your shells have a Ballistic Trajectory, aiming is still line of sight. However, there are ways to get around this. Take for instance, your gun has a fairly high ballistic trajectory and you are a ways behind a small hill with an enemy on the other side. If you try to aim with the Sniper View, all you will see is the hill but if you use the Arcade View, you may be able to hit the target. Keep in mind that the Arcade View will uses a line of sight from the Commanders hatch so while it is higher than Sniper View, it is not the highest. If all else fails you can try Automatic Aiming as it does not require ANY line of sight and may be able to land the shell on the enemy vehicle.

Client Versus Server: Because World of Tanks is a server side game (meaning all data and calculations are done at the server instead of the client), lag is a very real thing. This can cause unwanted results as your shell could fly in a completely different direction from where you are aiming. Remember that every action you make also has to be sent to the server and done there as well. It is usually a good idea to take that extra moment before pulling the trigger to help make sure the shells goes where you want it.

Accuracy and Dispersion: How the game handles accuracy and aim time. Quick note on this secton: As of Update 3.0, this has slightly changed and I will update when WG makes the specifics made public.

Spoiler

Gun Accuracy: Every tank has a listed accuracy stat. Say the listed stat is .36, this means that at 100m away, the shell can deviate from center when fully aimed in by .36m. At 200m it can deviate .72m from center, and at 400m it can deviate 1.44m from center.

Aiming Circle: The aiming circle displays an area of 2 standard deviations (based on a Gaussian Distribution Curve or "Bell" Curve) from the aiming point. This means that about 4.6% of your shots will actually land outside of the aiming circle. The percentages of where your shots will land are shown on the image in the spoiler below.

Spoiler

The center of the graph represents the center of the aiming circle out to 2 deviations. There is a 68.2% chance that your shell will be near the center of the reticle The 2.1% and 0.1% numbers are outside of the aiming circle. This means that 95.4% of your shells will land within the aiming circle. This curve holds true regardless of the size of the aiming circle.

Added in second image to better help people understand the Distribution Curve above.

Accuracy Penalties: There are several factors that can negatively affect your accuracy.

Dead Gunner: When your Gunner is dead, his effective skill level (used in the formulas under Tank Stats) is set to zero. If there are two gunners and one is killed, it is set to 50%.

Damaged Gun: When the gun is damaged (yellow) the accuracy is reduced by 50%.

Shooting: After you shoot, the gun must be re-sighted to regain accuracy. Different guns have different blooms after shooting.

Rotating Turret: While rotating the turret, there is a penalty based on gun and speed of turret rotation.

Vehicle Movement: While moving your vehicle, there is a penalty based on installed suspension and speed of movement.

Vehicle Rotation: While rotating your vehicle there is a penalty based on installed suspension and speed of rotation.

Aiming Time: The aiming time listed for each gun is the amount of time it takes for the aiming circle to reduce by 2/3 of it's maximum size. Generally, a gun will take a longer time to be fully sighted than what is actually listed.

END NOTES: This is still a work in progress and I will be adding much more to it in time. If you want anything specific added, please let me know and I will do my best. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know below or send a PM.

I would like to add the exact percentages of penalties to crew effectiveness in each category when a crew member is killed but I am having trouble locating this information. Would a WG staff member be willing or able to provide this data? It would be much appreciated.

The highest point would be the center of the reticle with 2 deviations out being the outside of the reticle. The 2.1% and 0.1% numbers are outside of the aiming circle. The percentages represent how likely it is that the shell will land there. There is a 68.2% chance that your shell will be towards the center of the reticle. I will clarify this in the section.